Finally.

SAMANTHA

I was dreaming about flowers, weddings, and candles. Mason got up from the bed, and the mattress dipped from the movement. That woke me up as he padded barefoot to my bathroom. He didn’t turn the light on. The sun filled the room enough, and I waited one moment, guessing that it was eight thirty-two in the morning before I opened one eye, seeing that I was right from the clock on my nightstand.

The smell of pancakes and coffee told me the time more than how bright it was in my room. Malinda would’ve gotten up around seven. By this time, it would be the second pot of coffee, and I sat up, waiting for it.

“Mama Malinda, you’re looking fresh this morning.” Logan’s voice could be heard all the way down to my room in the basement. A faint grin came over my face, and I snuggled back down underneath the sheets.

Home. That was where we were.

I woke up in the hospital where they got the drugs out of my system. I told them I’d been at a party, and it must’ve been slipped into my drink. After a few hours under intense scrutiny, they released me to go home with Mason. It helped when Garrett came later to check on me, stating that he was my father. He brought my phone too. When Mason was finally allowed to take me home, Garrett followed behind to the house. There, with Nate and Logan, we all sat around the table, and he told us Sebastian’s fate.

“I didn’t even tell them about Sam.” His gaze lingered on me before casing a sharp look to Mason beside me. “You already leaked the e-mail.”

Mason smiled at him. “What e-mail?”

Logan sucked in his breath as a wide smile started to grow. “Oh, damn.”

“It’s like that, huh?” Garrett’s eyebrow lifted up.

Logan coughed into his hand, “Burn.”

Mason started to speak, but Logan cut in, leaning forward and placing a hand onto the table, “We never admit. To anything.” He made a show of looking Garrett up and down, and his top lip curled upward. “You know, so we can’t be incriminated for things we don’t do.”

Garrett’s eyes grew lidded, but he nodded. “Fine. Whatever your ‘policy’ is, I’m here to tell you that once the e-mail was leaked, everyone went into chaos. They blamed my godson—”

Logan opened his mouth, but Mason held up a hand, putting it in front of his brother’s face. He said first, “Which they should. It came from his e-mail. Right?”

“It did, indeed.” My biological father had a knowing spark in his eyes. It was like he was realizing Mason wasn’t a normal college student.

I glanced down to my lap, slid my hand from underneath Mason’s, and tangled my fingers together. Mason and Logan weren’t normal. I wasn’t either. When they burned Sebastian’s frat house down, I knew things were different. Or I knew things were going to be different, and they had been. We all went our own paths during this semester. Each of us tried to protect the other, but all in our own ways. I didn’t want that to be the normal routine. I enjoyed, relished even, the feel of Mason and Logan always having my back. I didn’t know why, but I frowned to myself. We were individuals, but we were family. Mason and I—we were individuals, too. Yet, we were together. I knew nothing would get between us, not unless we allowed it.

This was a different feeling than before.

I had changed.

I didn’t need them in a way like before. Mason and Logan were there for me. Seeing my biological father across the table, he stood for the other parents in my life. All of them abandoned me. I was left with no one. That was when Mason and Logan came in. They became my real family. I was related to Garrett and Analise by blood. David raised me, and Malinda would be there for me for the rest of my life, but Mason and Logan—they were the real deal for me.

Going into that house, stalling Sebastian so that Mason could upload the flash drive—no. Not even that. I was different. I just felt it in me. Sebastian was going to rape me, and he might’ve if Mason hadn’t been there for me, but it wouldn’t happen again. I knew I wouldn’t allow that. If I were in a room with my enemy, I’d be watching everything. How he moved, what facial expressions he had, where he looked, how he said things, and yes, most definitely if one bottle of water was left in the refrigerator. I’d be aware of my surroundings. That was one lesson Sebastian taught me, but I knew there were more.

Garrett was a person. He was a fuck-up dad, but he was a person. That’d been another lesson. And the other main lesson: I was going to be okay. No matter what happened. I just escaped a near-rape, and it hadn’t changed me. From all the crap I’d been dealt over the years, that was almost nothing. Still. I might start carrying a bat with me, or maybe it was time I learned more than a few moves of self-defense.

I think it was time I became a badass fighter like Mason.

Having that thought, I glanced at him from the side of my eye. All that time in the arena, learning those defensive and attack moves, I rubbed my lips together. It might take a while for me, but the whole training process would be fun. Hell, it’d be delicious, and I couldn’t wait to start.

Garrett informed us that Sebastian was blamed for the e-mail leak. He denied until he was blue in the face that it was him, putting the blame on us, but my biological father vowed Mason was nowhere near the house. There was no way Sebastian could blame this on him. As for me, apparently I had been scanned when I came through the front door by some hidden machine. No flash drive was on my body, so they knew it wasn’t me.

Then we heard the best part.

Sebastian raped a girl his freshmen, sophomore, and junior years of college. That wasn’t the good part. It was the evidence The Network had on him. In true casting-out fashion, all that evidence was leaked to the authorities. And that meant Sebastian was going away to prison for a long time.

When he would be released, Garrett informed us that more blackmail information would be released. Sebastian did more than rape a few girls, and if he saw the outside of a prison, there was more information that would send him right back.

In short, Park Sebastian was screwed. Literally.

We never had to worry about him again, and we were home for holiday break. That meant an entire month of being here, having Mason next to me every night, and not worrying about next semester. Right now, hearing Malinda laughing above me from the kitchen as Logan’s laugh followed a second later, I was happy.

I was content.